


Love is Grown

by lunaseemoony



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Teninch - Fandom, The Politician's Husband
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gift Fic, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 21:19:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9028657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaseemoony/pseuds/lunaseemoony
Summary: Aiden meets up with his old classmate Rose in his freshman year at university and learns he still has feelings for her. But given their rocky past, winning her over isn't easy. He's got some growing to do first.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QuiteRightToo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuiteRightToo/gifts).



> This is a follow-up to [Puppy Love](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7696921). I'd suggest probably reading that first. It's short. :)
> 
> This is my secret santa fic for quite-right-too. Happy holidays dear and I hope you enjoy!

It just so happened that Aiden and Rose enrolled at the same university. Really, it was entirely by coincidence. Though Aiden had earned Rose’s forgiveness for the rigamarole he’d dragged her through in school nearly two years prior, they still barely spoke. So he didn’t know what Rose intended to study. However, he knew for certain that Rose Tyler never gave up on anything. So whatever goal she was working towards she’d reach it, he could take that to the bank. She was the most determined girl -  _ woman _ he’d ever met, and the only worthy adversary he’d ever faced.  

 

He spotted her for the first time that term on a morning in the third week walking her black labrador Mickey around the commons. The same dog he’d adopted for her, the one that’d earned Aiden her forgiveness for treating her horribly in the student council election. From the week or so that Aiden spent with the dog before he gave her to Rose nearly two years ago he learned the creature was pretty vacant. But the furry idiot’s saving grace was being so protective of Rose, fending off the stupid boys who’d dared flirt with her. Perfectly by coincidence, Aiden’s dorm was situated next to the commons. He just so happened to sit at his window around the same time every day that she walked the dog. 

 

Aiden was rooming with his longtime friend Richard Babbish. They had similar career plans all plotted out. Richard had been good for keeping Aiden in line, up until recently at least. Aiden had never told Richard of his crush on Rose, but he’d figured it out all the same. 

 

“Frankly I still don’t know what you see in her, she’s so  _ common _ .” 

 

He lobbed a book at Richard and gave him a well-deserved shiner for that comment. Eighteen-years-old and Aiden still hadn’t gotten a hold of his temper. Odds were he never would. 

 

“You’re so besotted with the girl, why not, I dunno,  _ speak _ to her?”

 

Aiden had already turned his attention back to her. Nobody could look cuter while playing frisbee with a dog as Rose did. Clad in her wellies and raincoat beneath the gray sky and autumn rain, they were tromping around on the grass drowning in puddles and her honey hair was soaked. But even from the third floor her smile wasn’t any less radiant than on a sunny day. A stranger wouldn’t know it by looking right then but she was fierce. Perfect.

 

“She doesn’t like me, barely knows I exist.” 

 

“Whatever happened to your plot for world domination hmm? You and me, MPs in ten years, right? Wouldn’t know it the way you’ve been shuffling to your classes and ghosting about the halls moping over this girl.” 

 

Aiden stood up and lifted another book. Richard cringed. “I haven’t been moping! Take that back!” 

 

“Can’t take back what’s true. You’ve been distracted. Admit it.”

 

“I haven’t!”

 

Richard snorted. “Yeah? Then tell me when our economics paper is due.”

 

“Thursday. I’ve got plenty of time.”

 

“Today IS Thursday.”

 

“FUCK!”

 

For the next month and a half Aiden decided his friend was right. Rose was too distracting, particularly for someone that he couldn’t even grow a set to talk to. She’d effortlessly replaced his dreams of someday taking parliament by storm. He loved the very idea of someone with as much ambition as he had with a genuine smile and soft heart. At first he thought that was all it was, fascination and awe. If he could focus on his schoolwork enough it would fizzle out, he figured. No such luck. 

 

He had to do  _ something _ , before he lost his fucking mind needing to be close to her. He once again enlisted the help of her mate Shareen. Through her he learned Rose was having her first art show with her class at the end of term. Attending would seem just innocent enough. Perfect. He snagged a flier from a bulletin board outside the arts building and taped it to the wall next to his bunk in his dorm and started counting down the days on a calendar. He completely disregarded Richard calling him a bloody coward. 

 

It wasn’t strictly  _ untrue _ . Any other time Aiden always went for what he wanted. He’d take it. Win it. Conquer it. Whatever it was, every time. He couldn’t be beat by anything or anyone. Except Rose. She was the one person who’d already bested him. He couldn’t simply win Rose, she’d already proved it. He’d already failed her once, he intended to do everything right this time. 

 

He began grabbing his morning tea around the same time Rose walked Mickey. It was a plot, yes. But it was still innocent enough. He didn’t have any proper excuses so it had to do. And after a while simply watching her with that dog wasn’t cutting it. In the last months of school before they graduated he’d managed little chats with Rose here and there. So around late fall he worked his way back up there, at first saying hello a couple times in passing. Then he got her to sit down and chat on a bench with him while he played fetch with Mickey. Finally he started bringing her coffee on Friday mornings. He learned she was dabbling between art and communication. She was figuring out what she wanted. Her and Mickey were living in a tiny flat with her mate Shareen just a step off campus so she could keep the dog. 

 

He had her Friday coffee in hand one late November morning on his way to see her only to find himself replaced by somebody else. The skinny bloke looked like a punk in his torn denim, studded leather, and piercings all over. That wasn’t as bad as him kissing and holding Rose’s hand. The lucky bastard was more than just a morning chat. She’d betrayed Aiden, as though she was magically supposed to know she was to wait for Aiden’s masterful plan to woo her at her art show. Stupid. Really stupid. Though not quite as much as ripping up his textbook amidst his rage over it. 

 

“Who is he?!” Aiden stormed Shareen outside the cafe she worked at that afternoon. 

 

Shareen fell against the door and held her chest as she gasped. Growling, “Yeah hello to you too asshole. Guessing you’re talking about her boyfriend. His name’s Jimmy. Used to date a long time ago before he suddenly left her.” 

 

“What, and now he’s magically back, just like that?” 

 

“I dunno. Look, just go talk to her. I shouldn’t even be telling you any of this. If you so much as look at her wrong - ”

 

“I love her.” 

 

Shareen started walking when an old lady yelled at them for blocking the door. Aiden walked alongside, and carried her bag for her. Incentive to cooperate. “You barely know her you git.” 

 

“How many times have you been in love with someone like that? Don’t lie. Everyone has at some point. You can’t explain it but one day you wake up and suddenly just thinking of them your heart beats for them. No rhyme or reason. Just a decision that was made deep down without you realizing it, before you can do anything about it.” Aiden stopped and gulped down a breath. “I’ve tried fighting it. For the first time in like, ever, I’m terrified of something.”

 

Shareen cackled. “What. Rose?” 

 

“Of feeling how I do for her. That she’s more important than other things. Of failing. Stop laughing!”

 

She cleared her throat. “Sorry. It’s just Rose and me, we got this picture of you being all high and mighty, nothing can touch you. And you’re like a lovesick puppy all melty over her.”

 

“Tell me I’m not too late.” 

 

“I dunno mate. Rose and Jimmy… they dated a good while last time.” 

 

“I guess I’ll wait then.”

 

“For what?”

 

“Anything,” was the only answer Aiden had for Shareen. 

 

So he waited. He met up with Rose in the afternoons when Jimmy was busy, sneaking out of his afternoon classes early just to see her. Rose’s smile, her laugh, the way her caring heart melted him were all well worth his professors’ consternation over him skipping out on those few minutes of lecture time. Rose worked out why Aiden made a point of avoiding her when she was around Jimmy, even teased him about it, bumping elbows with that salacious tongue-touched smile of hers. He took it in stride as best he could. He was pleased to merely be in Rose’s favor. If she knew he was biding his time she didn’t make it known. 

 

Aiden figured he was supposed to be pleased when Jimmy skipped out on Rose’s art show, when he didn’t give her anything but a signed card for Christmas, and when he ditched her on Valentine’s Day. In a small way he was pleased to be right, but his smugness was swallowed up by guilt. Their crumbling relationship meant an in for Aiden, but also Rose’s misery at the same time. He’d had his fair share of Rose crying after he’d hurt her so badly. Nobody else should’ve been allowed to on his watch. Especially not Jimmy’s punk ass. 

 

He’d only ever had a crush on Rose until he realized this. He didn’t truly love her until he comforted Rose that next morning on February 15th. He skipped his classes that day to be with her and comfort her. As he wrapped an arm about Rose in his dorm and offered her hot cocoa it dawned on him that true love wasn’t won or earned but grown, regardless if it was returned. It meant supporting her and offering her encouragement even if he despised Jimmy with the fire of a thousand suns. Nobody should be allowed to make his sweet ray of sunshine cry and get away with it - though he kept that sentiment to himself. Truly loving Rose meant not only trusting her but supporting all her choices, even if he hated them. If he truly loved her he’d want her happy, no matter what. 

 

He told her so. 

 

“It breaks my heart seeing how he affects you like this Rose. How he hurts you.” He dug up a bit of his younger, bolder self and cupped her chin, wiping away tears. “How he makes you cry. You deserve to be happy and feel loved.” 

 

Rose hiccuped and sniffed. Just like she did the first time he saw her cry. “I know you hate him but he can be so good. He’s just… he gets busy with his shows and all.”

 

“You don’t owe him anything. You don’t have to be the better person every time if he makes you feel this way.” 

 

“You want me to dump him. Go on, say it.”

 

He was probably being overly dramatic but at the time this felt like the toughest thing to say. “I want you to be happy, Rose.” 

 

She rang Jimmy a few minutes later and dumped him. It might’ve been a decision made on impulse but it was hers alone. She’d just needed a sympathetic ear, Aiden told himself. A couple weeks later he resumed his morning walks with Mickey and Rose, grabbing her coffee every Friday. Only now the coffee came with scones that they shared because she never finished them. It came with seizing her hand, because he wasn’t waiting any longer. Their fingers laced together not knowing where one hand ended and the other began was the most right feeling in a long time, maybe ever. He kissed her not long after, before anybody else got any ideas. Not that Rose was a prize, he reminded himself. He kissed her then because it was  _ right _ , a million tiny little fireworks setting off from where her lips met his to their joined hands to his heart ablaze with love for her. She was well worth the wait, nearly failing half his courses from daydreaming over her, and supporting her through her heartache. She was worth anything and everything and he spent the rest of his time at university and beyond making certain she knew it. 

  
  
  
  



End file.
